October 27, 2008
As you long time PVBers know, I must have tunes playing while I write an Editorial. It's tradition ha. So today I decided to stay in the "F" section of my CD rack. I don't know why, just for kicks I guess. So I start off today with Filter, Title of Record; followed by Foo Fighters, The Colour and the Shape; Fishbone, The Reality of My Surroundings; Franz Ferdinand (self titled); and ending up with Perry Farrell, Rev.
This Editorial reflects the shows that aired from October 20
thru October 24. It may contain spoiler and speculation. I don't really
know 
until
I start writing what I'm going to say lol
This was one action packed week! Opal was right on target when she warned anyone who would listen that bad things were coming. She was so on target that she knew it was going to be bad for the Carey women. And was it ever! I find it funny when people dismiss Opal as a crackpot and don't listen to her predictions. She's almost always correct and really shouldn't be fluffed off so easily. Sure, she did think she spoke to the spirit of Jesse once and Jesse is actually alive. Wasn't that a great nod to the little things that fans remember? I love when they do that kind of thing. But anyway that is one incident of her abilities being off and it wasn't really her fault if you want to get technical. It as a rewrite of AMC history. So from now on people, listen to Opal!
For all her efforts, poor Opal ended up in the hospital after suffering a heart attack from all the stress of these visions. Luckily it wasn't too severe, and she was up and around before too long. But the rest of Pine Valley did not fair as well. And once Tad knew that Opal was going to be OK, he wanted to get back to The Comeback to make sure Krystal, Kathy and everyone there made it through. Some stupid cop decided that Tad shouldn't go back outside so he handcuffed him to a gurney. Granted, I know in emergency situations the police want people to remain where they are. Last winter we had a HUGE snow storm here. Mr. Diva and I have never shied away from driving in the snow and don't find snow in Ohio a particularly strange occurrence so we ventured out. The streets were deserted and sure enough, we got stuck. Lucky for us a big SUV came by, saw us and helped us out but they also mentioned that the police put out a travel ban and that people found driving in this weather would be arrested! We had no idea, so we did end up slipping and sliding our way home. It was kind of funny that he told us that though, being he was out driving around too! Anyway, I digress. My point is, I thought the handcuffing was a bit severe. But emergency situations sometimes call for drastic measures.
As it turns out, The Comeback is in pandemonium. The roof was
torn off, the front caved in and the ceiling has fallen. Babe tried
to protect 
Little
Adam with her own body but when the ceiling caved in, a beam fell on
top of her, pinning her down with Little A underneath her. But that's
not the worst of Babe's problems. It seems when the beam fell on her,
it severed a main artery and if the beam is moved, she could bleed to
death. Little A is trapped under her and doesn't seem like he is breathing.
Oh my, when JR pulled his little lifeless hand out from under Babe,
my breathe caught in my throat! Babe doesn't care what happens to her
but keeps screaming for JR to save their son. Angie is trying to find
something, anything to clamp off the artery so Babe doesn't bleed out.
Babe pleads with JR but JR wants to be sure that both Little A and Babe
can be saved. Babe assures JR that she will be fine and that she has
far too much to live for now. Oh it's getting weepy in here. After searching
The Comeback, they finally make due with whatever they
have so JR and Jesse move the beam off Babe. JR gets Little A out from
under Babe and he is going to be OK. While Krystal keeps pressure on
the wound, Angie tries to sew it up. Babe is not in good shape and knows
it. She wants to say good bye to Little Adam just as it looks like another
tornado is going to rip through. Krystal prays while the adorable Little
Adam tries to sooth his mommy by stroking her hair. Oh pass me a tissue!
At the beach house, Zach is just arriving back to find the place leveled. How Zach survived being tossed around in his car then having his whole car tossed by a tornado is beyond me! But he did. And then his car was surrounded by live wires and he couldn't get out. And then Annie finds him! I don't really know which was the most far fetched of all this, but I don't care either. It was A-MAZE-ING to watch! I've heard people complaining about the special effects being cheesy or whatever. But I have this to say people... soaps are not gazillion dollar big budget movies. So to achieve what they did on the budget they probably had was incredible! I thought it was fantastic and was on the edge of my seat watching it all unfold. But that said, it's time for another poll.
Back to the action at the beach house. Zach desperately searches
for Kendall and the boys. He finds Spike and Ian hidden under a table
surrounded by sofa cushions. Both boys are safe and fine. So he goes
searching for Kendall and instead of Kendall he finds a very pregnant
Bianca! Once Bianca comes to and he realizes she's OK, he goes back
to searching for Kendall. He finds her bleeding from her head and unconscious.
She's not breathing so Zach gives her CPR and revives her. It's not
long after that EMT's arrive. They try to tend to Bianca but she's fine,
no contractions. They only have room in the rig for one more patient
so it has to be Kendall. Zach and Bianca stay with the boys and wait
for someone else to come back for them. While they are waiting we find
out the shocking news that Zach is the father of Bianca's baby! I've
been asked many times already what we missed because no one knew about
this. The answer to that is you didn't miss anything. This was a bombshell
dropped on all of us. As it turns out, at some point last year, Zach
went to Paris on Cambias business and spent some time with Bianca and
her new love, Reese. Bianca and Reese are so in love and wanted to have
a child together, so they asked Zach if would donate his sperm. He agreed.
And in the mythical world of Pine Valley, where abortions live, people
come back from the dead regularly, people get away with murder and inseminations
happen with turkey basters administered by your brother in law on the
sofa in his cabin (that's a reference to Greenlee and David, not Bianca
and Zach!), the insemination took on the very first try and Bianca is
just over seven months pregnant. Zach didn't know it was successful,
so he was pretty shocked to find all this out too. And worse, Kendall
knows nothing about it. Zach and Bianca both chose not to tell Kendall.
That is some pretty big betrayal by the two most important people in
Kendall's life. I don't suspect she'll be happy go lucky about that
when she wakes up from her coma. Granted, Bianca did come to Pine Valley
in the first place to tell her, but telling her when she's just about
ready to give birth is not exactly the right move. Turns out Bianca
chose not to go to Kendall with her request because she didn't want
to give her the opportunity to say no. Hmmm. Me thinks that if you 
think
the request will be met in the negative, you should try to come up with
a different plan. But I'm willing to see how this will all play out.
As if on cue, after the paramedics leave, Bianca starts to
have contractions. There is no one around, the EMT's are gone and she
and Zach are left to fend for themselves. It's Zach to the rescue and
thankfully he does know a little something 
about
birthin babies. Zach, is there anything he can't do!? He finds a big
pot and puts it on the fire to boil water because that's what you do
when you have to deliver a baby. Poor Bianca, the conditions are never
good when she is ready to give birth. Who could ever forget the cabin
in the woods where Bianca gave birth to Miranda with Babe's help in
a big storm. This isn't much better. Bianca is in labor out in the elements,
a big storm has just gone by and another could be on its way. Zach is
the only person there who can help her. But this time, since she's been
through it before, she knows what to expect. She also mentions that
she and Reese have studied up so she is able to walk Zach through an
little problems that may crop up. So as Bianca goes through labor and
delivery, with her brother in law elbow deep in her hooha, Bianca tells
him that she doesn't want anyone to know that he's the father of her
baby other than him and Kendall of course. And then, in the quickest
deliveries ever, Bianca's baby girl is born and proud papa Zach holds
the child up in what some are calling a flashback to Alex Haley's Roots,
but I am instead reminded of The Lion King. Either way,
it was kind of goofy and not just a little strange. Now they wait for
someone to come and rescue them.
Over at Adam's, Erica and Adam had gone into the tunnels when they saw that a shadowy figure ran past them and into the tunnels. That's not always the smartest thing to do, go after shadowy figures, but they did. They get to a spot in the tunnel that is like a little room and find that someone has indeed been hiding out there. Annie had been saying there was a stalker after her and that he was hiding in the tunnels but no one believed the wackadoo. Can you blame them? Annie is more unhinged than John McCain at this point. Anyway, they find take out food containers, Little Adam's football and some newspaper clippings about Babe. All this does not equal someone stalking Annie. And then the tornado hits the Chandler Mansion! The house shakes and shimmies and Erica and Adam are trapped. Not only has the door locked but when they do get that door open, they find that the tunnels have collapsed and the door is covered by rocks and beams. They seem to resign themselves pretty easily to dying down in the tunnels. True, no one knows they are there. And true, they don't really have anything to help them dig themselves out. But for goodness sakes, give it a go! Instead the two banter amusingly, while sucking up what little oxygen they have left. Leave it to Erica though, to turn a major crisis into a play for her affections. Erica gets this weeks LINE OF THE WEEK when, as they realize they may not make it out of the tunnels alive, Erica asks Adam for the truth by saying, "Admit it, you're still in love with me, aren't you?" But as their chances look more and more grim, Adam does admit to Erica that he sabotaged Bella in the hopes of getting controlling interest in FUSION. To Adam's credit, he never does give up the fact that Pete Cortlandt helped him. Erica wants to know what on earth Adam could possibly want with Kendall's company so Adam explains that he was doing it to teach JR a lesson and turn him against Babe. Erica reminds him that his little scheme lost him everything since JR packed up Babe and Little Adam and moved to California. Sadly most of Adam's schemes backfire in one way or another and yet he never learns. This time Erica is going to make sure Adam pays for this scheme and vows to use every breath she has left to dig her way out of that tunnel. As she's digging, a hand grabs hers from the other side and then another collapse happens! The hand retreats and Erica and Adam are knocked out by the crash.
Before the tornado hit, Aidan saw Ryan and Greenlee huddled together in a small shed. After the tornado passed, the shed was reduced to a pile of junk. Aidan searches through it with the help of an officer and much to his relief, he finds Greenlee. But his relief turns quickly to annoyance when she asks Aidan if he's found Ryan. Ryan, Ryan, Ryan! Aidan's about as sick of hearing the name Ryan as Jan Brady is sick of hearing the name Marcia! But when Ryan is found, he quickly realizes that Aidan saw he and Greenlee in the shed making out. You know, when death and destruction happens around you, it's perfectly appropriate in Pine Valley to make out as it's happening. And oops, the husband saw. Just then another tornado rips through and this time it's Aidan who needs to be saved. Ryan saves him. They're even.
At the hospital, Colby finds JR and asks him if he knows where Adam is. JR could care less about Adam at this point and tells Colby that if it weren't for Adam and his stupid subpoena, they would still be in San Diego, happy and Babe wouldn't be hurt. Babe's condition is very dire. In addition to the ruptured artery, she has many internal injuries. Angie is performing surgery on her and Krystal urges JR not to give up hope.
Aidan,
Ryan and Greenlee arrive and Greenlee immediately goes to the ICU to
see Kendall. She is in desperate need of surgery but there is no one
there to give consent. Jake suggests Greenlee be the one to give consent,
since they had been step sisters. Joe approves it, but Greenlee is not
willing to be the one that could possibly be sending Kendall into surgery
to die. I could be wrong, and I'm sure many of you will correct me if
I am lol, but in an emergency situation do they really have to wait
for consent? I didn't think so. At any rate, I don't blame Greenlee
one little bit for not wanting to be the one to give consent for such
a risky surgery. She wants to wait for Zach. Jake tells her they don't
have time, but Greenlee stands firm. She's really caught between a rock
and a hard place. If she gives consent and Kendall dies, she's to blame.
If she doesn't give consent and Kendall dies, she's to blame. It's not
an enviable position to be in. But she chooses to wait, and I personally
think it was the right thing to do. It isn't much longer that Zach does
arrive and Jake gives him the grim news about Kendall's condition. She
has a skull fracture and the fragments are in her brain and need to
be removed. After weighing his options, Zach gives consent and Kendall
is taken to surgery.
Annie finds Ryan at the hospital and tells him that Emma's been kidnapped. Ryan's first instinct is to not believe the nutball that he used to call his wife. But when Corinna is there to back her up and Annie reminds Ryan that she is being stalked, Ryan finally takes notice. I am a little ticked that Annie had the nerve to blame Corinna when it was clearly Annie who told Emma to wait where she was while she went to talk to Corinna. And then Emma disappeared. It was Annie's fault. And hmmm... maybe that was the point all along! Maybe Annie is so bat shit crazy that she's plotted to have her own daughter kidnapped. Hear me out, Ryan has custody. That right there is reason enough to send Annie, who was teetering on the edge of sanity, over to the other side. So she plots to grab her daughter, all the while playing the victim. The only problem I have with this scenario is how this would mean that Annie has turned into a complete sociopath. It means she has no conscious and could care less about the tornado, about the destruction, about the devastation, about the injuries to people she was friends with. Because all the while that this destruction was going on around her, she never gave up her fear that Emma was kidnapped and wanting Jesse to find her. For this reason alone, I'm on the fence with my little scenario here. Then again, maybe she's more like Richie than anyone ever knew! Something to ponder.
Realizing that her stalker was lurking around the tunnels at Chandler Mansion, she wants to go there and search. Ryan, Annie, Pete and Colby all go, hoping they will find not only Emma but Erica and Adam as well. They all go in realize that the tunnels have collapsed. Annie finds something that she claims Emma was wearing, so more than ever now she and Ryan think Emma is in there. They dig through and do find Adam and Erica, but there is no sign of Emma anywhere. Ryan tells Erica about Kendall's condition and she races out to get to the hospital to see her.
Babe
makes it through surgery but it's not good. Angie tells JR and Krystal
that they did all the could for her but her injuries were too extensive
and she is not going to make it. It's a shocking blow to all, even me
and I knew! Poor Babe. JR goes to see her. She awake and tells JR that
she wants to marry him tonight, she doesn't want to wait another minute
to be his wife. Oh my, pass me a tissue. Krystal comes in and they tell
her the good news. Krystal breaks down and has to leave the room so
JR follows her out and tells her that she has to hold it together for
Babe's sake. He wants her to have a perfect wedding filled with love
and tells her they can cry later. So he goes off to make some plans
while Krystal sits with Babe. Babe tells Krystal that she knows she's
going to die. Krystal tries to tell Babe she's going to be just fine.
Krystal cannot admit to herself that Babe is really going to die. This
is her babydoll, her life, her best friend. Babe tells Krystal not to
tell JR that she knows. It's an absolute weepfest as this mother and
daughter say goodbye forever. Babe asks her to look out for JR and Little
Adam and then tells her she wants to see her son. Babe holds him and
sings "You Are My Sunshine" to him.
The SCENE OF THE WEEK begins when a shattered Krystal walks out into the corridor where she comes face to face with Opal and immediately lashes out at her! Opal is so sorry that this is happening to them but Krystal doesn't want to hear it. It's a powerful moment when Krystal blames Opal for not seeing far enough so they could have done something. But Opal is ever understanding and through her tears, she tells Krystal that she knows what it's like to lose a daughter. Krystal breaks down in Opal's arms. Oh I need another tissue.
Angie is looking at Natalia and realizes that she needs some surgery but they cannot find anyone in her family to give consent. Jesse steps up and doesn't hesitate, telling Angie that Natalia is his daughter and he gives consent. Angie just stares at him then goes off to operate on Natalia. After it's over and she's in recovery, Frankie comes in and she tells him that Natalia is his sister. They are both in shock. But before too long the sirens go off and another tornado is coming! Angie grabs a blanket and she and Frankie cover Natalia and protect her just as the windows burst!
Hearing the sirens, Zach takes Bianca and the baby to a storage room for safety. Then as he's leaving, he spots Greenlee and dives on top of her to save her from the bursting windows. After the tornado passes he takes her to the storage room where Bianca and the baby are.
In the OR, Jake is operating on Kendall (because the neurosurgeon is not there and they have been unable to find him since the tornado) when the tornado hits and the power goes out! Jake asks for as much light as possible and wants to finish the surgery. He's afraid she will have too much brain damage if he doesn't finish. But the anesthesiologist warns him to close her up. Jake doesn't. Zach bursts into the OR but Jake tells him everything is under control and urges him to leave so he can finish with Kendall.
Taylor and Jesse work to get the hospital generator back up and running and succeed.
Zach returns to the storage room and tells them that Kendall is still in surgery. Bianca gets woozy and hands the baby over to Zach. The way they are talking, they make it all pretty obvious. First Bianca hands Zach the baby saying, "she needs you." And then when they start talking about Reese, Zach tells Greenlee how great she is and how he was in Paris last year and met her. Then when they start talking about what to name the baby, Bianca says that Zach gets a vote. Put all those little clues together and you get what Greenlee figured out, Zach is the baby's father. It wasn't real difficult and if they want to keep it a secret, they should really be more discreet. Bianca admits that Greenlee is right, but that Kendall doesn't know and they want to be the ones to tell her.
Elsewhere at the hospital, JR climbs into bed and protects Babe. She tells him she knows she is dying. Urges him to live his life, take care of their son and marry her now, she doesn't want to wait for a minister or anything else. JR picks her up off her bed and carries her to the hospital chapel while Tad tries his best to soothe Krystal. Alone, they marry each other with heartfelt and beautiful words. JR tells Babe that she gave him the strength to be a better man and that she taught him how to love. Babe tells JR that he was the first man that ever made her feel special. PERFORMER OF THE WEEK Babe's final words before she dies are these, "I love you from the deepest place in my soul. And no matter what, I'll never stop." Oh my.
With the surgery over, Jake comes out to tell Zach, Bianca and Greenlee that things are not as good as he had hoped and that when they went to close her up, she had a seizure and that she is unresponsive. Jake tries to explain that she's not necessarily in a coma but that it's not uncommon to be unresponsive after a seizure. Zach lashes out at Jake telling him that his ego got in the way and he should have stopped the surgery when the power went out. I understand Zach's frustration but ego hardly seems to be at the root of what Jake was doing. He was trying to save her.
Out of nowhere (well not really nowhere, actually out of the Chandler tunnels) David goes into the chapel and sees a shocked JR with Babe's lifeless body. JR tells him she's dead, but David tries to revive her. JR, in his grief, tries to stop him but Tad and Krystal burst in. Tad pulls David off Babe while Krystal drops to the floor and cradles her babydoll. Tad pulls him out of the room while JR and Krystal say their goodbyes to Babe.
Jesse tries to explain about Natalia to Frankie, but Frankie isn't ready to listen. Angie on the hand, is. She wants to know everything. She can't understand how Jesse could just walk away from another family after what he went through with them. Jesse has lots of 'splaining to do!
In the stairwell, Taylor finds Jake. He's worried that he didn't do the right thing where Kendall is concerned. She goes to get him some coffee just as Joe comes in and pretty much confirms Jake's worries, telling him that he made a mistake not closing her up when the power went out. He reprimands Jake for not following procedure and of course, that is when Zach just happens to be in the stairwell and overhears what Joe said. Zach lashes out at Jake again, blaming his ego for putting Kendall in the condition she's in. And as he's yelling, Taylor returns and Zach accidentally knocks her down the stairs while he's yelling.
Ryan suddenly pieces together that David is back in town and races to the hospital with Annie, believing he's the stalker. When he finds David, he grabs him and starts screaming about Emma. Ryan gets this weeks I NEED TO BE SLAPPED award for blindly grabbing a grieving father and screaming at him about something he doesn't know anything about. This is a disaster situation and you need to be aware of what is happening around you. Ryan could not have cared less. It was Joe who told him to back off, that Babe had just died. Later they get a call indicating that Emma is home at the penthouse. But when they get there, they only find a note saying not to calling the police. Emma has officially been kidnapped.
David takes Babe's body up to the roof of the hospital and vows revenge on all the Chandler's, blaming them for her death. You know there is a whole lot of crazy going around Pine Valley, but I'm certainly enjoying the show more than I have in many many months! This weeks AMC gets an A!
I
cannot end this Editorial without bidding a fond farewell to the lovely
and talented Eileen Herlie (Myrtle). Eileen
passed away on October 8 from complications of pneumonia. She was 90
years old. I don't think Pine Valley will ever be the same without the
sage wisdom of Myrtle Fargate. She was surrogate mother to so many of
the residents... Erica and Zach especially. 
Having
joined the show in 1976, she was a mainstay until recent years. She
was always there with kindness, love and good advice for anyone who
needed it. She will be greatly missed. After all, what
other character on daytime can boast a love affair with Santa Claus!